SEAL Team 6 chooses Boxing

The guys who got Osama bin Laden need boxing lessons. According to a contract solicitation issued Feb. 1, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group — that’s SEAL Team 6, to us civilians — wants former special-operations types and other flying fists to school them in “combative training.”

Who’d have thunk the gang that got bin Laden would have to go outside their own tight circle to study pugilism? “Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG) personnel conduct advanced research and development of tactics for use by Naval Special Warfare Forces,” it reads. “In order to successfully conduct this mission, they must be trained and prepared to conduct a diverse range of combat skills.”

Course instruction shall include all aspects of military combatives, shall be operationally focused, and shall be conducted with and without full kit using NSWDG crawl, walk, run combative training methodology. Techniques shall comply with NSWDG standard operating procedures, rules of engagement, use-of-force continuum, and deadly force restrictions and guidelines. Course of instruction shall incorporate the tactical employment of Combatives techniques while teaching students how to adapt to different scenarios and specific needs.

The contract will last for seven months, starting next month, and there’s an option to extend it for an additional year. It’ll require at least one instructor for each group of up to 30 SEALs. Private individual lessons — it’s not explained whether these are for slow SEALs or specially trained SEALs — also are part of the deal. (“Private session training will be arranged when needed through the command combative training point of contact,” the solicitation says.)

— Close-quarter striking techniques to include punches, parries (blocks) and counterstrikes.
— Sound training techniques to include focus mitt and bag training.
— Advanced application to include boxing combinations, footwork and balance and self-defense.
— Combative training shall include close-quarter striking techniques, close-quarter hand-to-hand combat fighting and defensive counterstrike techniques.
— Combative training shall provide techniques and procedures based on current and real-world scenarios.
— Combat training shall work effectively with NSWDG-provided equipment (i.e., headgear and boxing ring) and shall be applicable in confined spaces or shipboard environment. Government-furnished Special Operations Forces (SOF) related Personal Protection Equipment and weapons will be implemented during training, as well.
— At the conclusion of each course of instruction, the student experience and practical levels of capabilities will be increased in the following areas to the greatest extent possible under the time provided: footwork, balance, blocks, punches, counterpunches and clinch work, offensive and defensive boxing techniques and multiple-opponent strategies. Initial student experience will vary from three (3) to fifteen (15) years of related training.

With students boasting up to 15 years’ training, the teachers had better be pretty skilled. The winning contractor will meet the following requirements:

— Instructor(s) shall be nationally or internationally recognized at world-level competitions such as the Junior Olympics, the International Military Sports Council and the National USA boxing golden gloves.
— Instructor(s) shall possess an established background in employing and incorporating Western Boxing techniques into tactical military scenarios to include, but not limited to, Close Quarter Battle (CQB), Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) and Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS). Instructor(s) shall have verifiable experience training various military groups.
— Primary Instructor shall have a minimum of five (5) years of SOF experience; minimum 10 years experience in teaching beginner through advanced students; recognition nationally and militarily as a boxing expert.
— Contractor shall have prior experience in the development and delivery of a combative-skills course to Special Operations Forces (SOF).

The lessons will take place at the SEALs’ East Coast outpost at Virginia Beach, Va. Given all the tough requirements, SEALs — and would-be SEALs — will be hearted to know that the training should occur only during “normal working hours” from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I wouldn't say this clearly indicates a move toward Boxing as the sole combatives discipline. It could simply mean the command has identified that the unit needs a brush-up on basic striking skills, or this compliments other training in place that incorporates grappling and/or edged weapons. If those training blocks are provided under different contracts, they may not be up for recompete right now. It is interesting that they specify Boxing, and not Muay Thai.

I've seen this already but I wonder why they are doing this because Gustavo trains guys for free.

You never know somone might actually be looking at the results of training and saying. "Hey these boxing type guys scrap pretty well. Why are we not doing that?" Rather than listening to a sales pitch.

You never know somone might actually be looking at the results of training and saying. "Hey these boxing type guys scrap pretty well. Why are we not doing that?" Rather than listening to a sales pitch.

Not my experience of a government organisation. But still.

It sorta smacks me as someone trying to give their buddy some steady work, not unheard of, because they have access to so much and many offer it free of charge just for the publicity alone.